HN vs Native Reader for Hacker News
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HN
Access Hacker News stories with a clean and high-performance interface. Bookmark articles, share them via integrated services like Twitter and Facebook, and enjoy a simple design with dark mode support.
- Top, New, and Best stories
- Bookmark stories
- Integrated sharing (Twitter, Facebook, Mail)
- High performance fetching
- Simple and clean design
- Dark mode support
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Simple and High Performance Hacker News app. Stories - Top stories - New stories - Week's best stories - Bookmarked stories (You can bookmark any stories.) Integrated Services and Apps - Twitter - Facebook - Pocket - Evernote - Mail - Message etc. Other features - Bookmark stories - High performance fetch - Simple and clean design - Dark mode support
Native Reader for Hacker News
Explore Hacker News with advanced filtering and customizable text sizes. Share articles easily and hide unwanted stories with a swipe. Enjoy an ad-free reading experience with dark mode options.
- Filter stories by Rank, Points, or Comments
- Responsive text sizes
- Share articles to social platforms
- Swipe to hide stories
- Ad-free reading
- Dark mode
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Experience Hacker News like never before with our new app! Take full advantage of your iOS device to: * Explore the Top 100 Hacker News stories in innovative ways: filter by Rank, Points, or Comments. * Enjoy fully responsive text sizes that cater to your reading comfort. * Share the articles that resonate with you across all your favorite social platforms. * Quickly hide stories from your feed with a simple swipe to the left! * Immerse yourself in ad-free reading with built-in reader mode. * Switch to dark mode for comfortable reading day or night.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: HN at 60% against Native Reader for Hacker News's 20%. HN also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.4). Native Reader for Hacker News's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 6 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
HN ships an update every 6 months, Native Reader for Hacker News every 2 days. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | HN | Native Reader for Hacker News |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 4.2 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews — better | 20.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Sokichi Fujita | Cristian Monterroza |
Customer experience
HN
Native Reader for Hacker News
In-app purchases
HN
No in-app purchases
Native Reader for Hacker News
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is HN free?
Is Native Reader for Hacker News free?
Do HN or Native Reader for Hacker News have ads?
Which is updated more often, HN or Native Reader for Hacker News?
Other comparisons
